100g mhrb....check
~100g NaOH...check
1500mL h2o...check

1 Publix #2 HDPE plastic milk jug, mixed lye/water very carefully (tyvex suit kept a splash out!!!).

put mhrb in lye/water, shook vigorously for 2 minutes. set down for 2 hours (dinner).

Took 85mL naptha on first pull. Rolled jug 4x with naptha and allowed to separate a total of 4 times over the course of 15 minutes. SWIM did this 2 times. a total of 250mL of naptha was used for 3 pulls, with the last pull sitting overnight in de jug (last pull at 10.15pm)

roughly measured combined pulls (about 160mL nap for the two), capped, and set in freezer at same time ^(10.15)

its now 6:15est and SWIM is becoming very impatient. SWIM hates when this happens.



edit: Final yeild was 985mg of spice, without cleaning anything. Cant find my card reader so no pictures but was wonderfully successful.


Had a bit of an issue, SWIM accidentally got some black gunk in his pull, so he had to recrystallize, and precip again. now hes waiting for it to finish.... He did get some spice from the first precip, because he filtered out the naptha. it was ~35mg (scale only picked up 32, but SWIM doesnt trust his scale very much.)

SWIM did another pull from the mhrb, 90mL of room temp naptha was in a jug for 2 days, consistently agitated throughout. Last night SWIM pulled yellowy naptha (started out clear) from the rootbark, then put it in the freezer to precip. He checked it around +3 hours in the fridge, then again at +7 (SWIM couldnt sleep very well last night) small crystals had started to form at +3, then more crystals at +7. this morning SWIM woke up and checked his martini. Tons of crystals had formed on his glass, and still more were falling out, the naptha was still cloudy. SWIM is surprised as he got at least .8% yeild from the bark from the previous 2 pulls... He put some more naptha in the jug and agitated before going to work. He will decant naptha, and filter to reuse, and weigh out his REAL final product.

~Edit: See further post for pictures.

SWIY should use HDPE plastic, or preferably glass but over time lye can affect glass

solvents can draw toxins from most plastic

SWIM did use #2 HDPE plastic jug.

Pictured here are the results from the final pull, SWIM apologizes for crappy quality. Getting ready to decant, filter, dry and weigh. surprised so many got left behind




and after decanting, the now drying crystals:

Looks good. It seems you nailed the process.
Now I think you have to test it out!

.....

SWIMs wife apparently didnt get all the naptha out, flipped the glass upside down, and melted all the spice.. onto a coffee filter.

what a waste. SWIMs not pleased. not pleased at all.

edit: She saved the filters. SWIM will try to salvage as much as He can from them.

Ok update, SWIM went ahead and soaked the laden coffee filters in a bath of solvent for ~3-4 minutes. He then evapped the solution 20-25%, and then put the vessel (still the infamous martini glass) in the freezer (around 7:50) again with some press-n-seal on top. After ~1 1/2 hours (around 9:20), he checked the naptha, and sure enough it was cloudy again. He will check back around midnightish to see if any xtalz are forming. Then he will make the wife wait until he gets home from work tomorrow and show her how to make sure this doesnt happen again.

until then.

gir.

Good deal

Looks like you will be having a great experience in no time at all

updated. crystals started forming, though not nearly as many as SWIM had previously. He will wait until the 24hr mark, then decant naptha, and get those xtalz.

Once done, he will combine all the naptha from all the pulls, and evap it 50-60% and then freeze that, to see if he missed any strays.

SWIM accidentally pulled the same thing with the coffee filters before. She recovered most of it by soaking in hot naptha, maybe would help?

Gir gave this advise to SWIM, and he said that what he's going to do is finish the freeze precip on the crystalz in there, then combine both the "pull" naptha and the "coffee filter soak" naptha, in a jar, then put it in a water bath for a few minutes, then evap to saturate the naptha, then decant into his famous martini glass (again..), and refreeze one more time.

All in all SWIM thinks he can get most of the lost Deem back. Just a process.


-gir

Okay, SWIM contacted Gir and heres the results:

He took the margarita glass out of the freezer, decanted the naptha, and COMPLETELY DRIED IT, unlike his wife. So he ended up with this:

He then took the decanted naptha, heated it in a hot water bath for ~4 minutes, until it was almost hot to the touch, then took it off, covered it with more press-n-seal, and poked a few holes in the top for a slow evap of 60% total volume. Of course SWIM doesnt have the final results because slow evapping takes forEvER.

SWIM weighed his now dry crystals, which totalled 485mg, he believes the rest is inside the now cooling/evaporating naptha, and will definately freeze the rest of the naptha in the margarita glass.

Thats all I have for now, SWIM said hes going to go to the movies and watch Date Night with the wife.

-Gir